Skip to Content

24 November 2014 - What's new

24 November 2014
  • A new article in the Talking to publishers series covers How-to books for experienced writers - by experienced writers: 'In reality, no writer can exist for ever in a comfort cocoon of familiar marketplaces since editors are constantly changing, publishers frequently alter their focus, and all too often published authors find themselves redundant. That's why it's necessary for relatively new or middle list authors to be constantly re-inventing themselves to stay ahead of these market changes...'
  • To find out what editors are looking for, have a look at the Talking to publishers series, with contributions from the editors of lists which deal with books for writers, children's books, Young Adult, a paranormal list and Christian AlternativeAn Imprint Of John Hunt Publishing. A space at the edge where the light shines through..
  • 'Two interesting pieces of news from the last week show that publishing - of both the traditional and the new variety - is stronger than you might think. In China the second Shanghai International Children's Book Fair has attracted 250 exhibitors from 25 countries, with 6,000 Chinese and international business visitors and 20,000 Chinese consumers expected to attend This new Fair offers a real challenge to the international children's rights fair in Bologna...' News Review
  • From our Archive: 'Indeed, what is a ‘book life'? Author Jeff VanderMeer sees the ‘book' as any creative project requiring text, be it a traditional print book, an e-book or a podcast. The aim is to do things that support that book life in a positive way rather than undermining it. And the point of Booklife is to provide a strategic and tactical guide to being a writer in contemporary times. It is not a how-to guide to creating a blog or website, nor is it an instructional manual about writing. Instead, Booklife is a more subtle examination of the business of being a writer, intended to help the reader to create a modus operandi that works for them' Our reviewer looks at Jeff VanderMeer's Booklife.
  • ‘Beginners' failures are often the result of trying to work with strong feelings and ideas without having found the images to embody them, or without even knowing how to find the words and string them together. Ignorance of English vocabulary and grammar is a considerable liability to a writer of English. The best cure for it is, I believe, reading. Ursula K Le Guin , author of the classic The Left Hand of Darkness and Dancing at the Edge of the World on Brain Picking, quoted in our Comment column.
  • To find a mass of useful material on the site, try this page - Advice for Writers.
  • This week's links: a summary from authors' rights campaigner Hugh Howey, Amazon and Hachette Come to Terms | Hugh Howey; the views of a bestselling author, Dan Brown on the Writing Life as a Global Megaseller - Publishing Perspectives; views from the future front, Curiouser and curiouser: What we discovered at FutureBook 2014 | The Bookseller; a new perspective on SF, Virtual Sci-Fi Book Festival Makes Backlist Sexy Again - Publishing Perspectives; and, for light relief, Shortlist Announced for 2014 Bad Sex in Fiction Award.
  • 'The trouble with science fiction is that you can write about everything: time, space, all the future, all the past, all of the universe, any kind of creature imaginable. That's too big. It provides no focus for the artist. An artist needs, in order to function, some narrowing of focus. Read more.' Philip Klass in our Writers' Quotes.